Home Again
by YelloSubmarine93
Summary: Annabelle Meyers couldn't believe her luck when she and her family decided to move back to Beacon Hills. She'd been gone nine years. It's obvious that a lot can change in such a long time, but Beacon Hills is definitely not the town she left behind... Not sure where I'm going with this, we'll have to wait and see. T to be on the safe side.
1. Prologue

Have you ever noticed that when you leave home, nothing is quite the same? I don't mean leave home as in go to the shop, or move away to college. I mean when you have to move away from the one place where the people you love are, from the only place you've ever felt comfortable or at peace.

That's how I felt when, nine years ago, my parents told me we were leaving Beacon Hills. I was eight at the time, and the only other real sadness I'd felt was when my bunny had died. But when Flops died, my parents bought me a puppy, so I got over it pretty quick. The same cannot be said for when I left Beacon Hills. I had not felt heartbreak like it, nor have I since. My best friends, the three people I could tell absolutely anything to with no fear of ridicule or shame were taken away from me. The home I had grown up in was being left behind with all the memories my family, friends and I had made there. Flops' grave would belong to another family, one that had no emotional tie to the dead rabbit. Sometimes I thought my parents got the Border collie to try to apologise for the move, try to sweeten my siblings and I. They were the type to do it, so it made sense in my eight-year-old mind, even if nothing else about the move did.

However, none of that is important now.

It's not important because, finally, after nine long years of heartache and a constant nagging of misery in the back of my mind, I get to go home.


	2. Reunion

As I walked through the halls of Beacon Hills High School for the first time, I couldn't help the excitement that was bubbling up in my stomach. I know, not many teenagers moving towns could say they were happy to start their first day at their new school, but I couldn't wait to see my old friends. I had barely talked to Scott or Stiles since I moved away, as it was too hard for me to listen to them chattering on about their lives in the only town that I had ever called home and not get to be a part of it. I had, however managed to keep in contact with Lydia, who I had been close with back when we were kids. We had lived next door to each other, and she was like family to me. Unlike with Scott and Stiles, who had understood it was hard on me to talk to them from across the country and had let our friendship die down, Lydia had point-blank refused to allow me to wallow alone in self-pity. Since we were like sisters, and she had no real siblings of her own, she would call me every day, and her and her mother would visit on the occasional visit, since they could afford the flights to New York. Lydia was the one person in Beacon Hills who I had remained in constant contact with over the last nine years, so she had kept me up-to-date on everything important going on in Beacon, and when I told her I would be coming back for the second half of Junior year at least until Graduation, she almost made my ears bleed with the squealing and the high-pitched ranting about how much we needed to catch up on.

Lydia had told Scott and Stiles the moment I told her, knowing how excited they would be, but I hadn't talked to them myself since the summer before sophomore year, so I couldn't stop the smile on my face as I spotted the back of Scott's head beside some lockers, talking to Lydia and some tall brunette girl. Lydia spotted me first over Scott's shoulder, and her face instantly broke out into a massive grin as she ran over to me. How she managed to run so fast in those heels, I had no idea. "Bee!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around my shoulders. I hadn't heard that nickname in so long; it almost brought tears to my eyes. _Get a grip, Annabelle._ I had a mass of her strawberry-blonde hair in my face, some in my mouth, and I couldn't have been happier.

"Hey Dee. I've missed you too." I don't think I could've squeezed her any tighter if I had tried.

"I don't care how fabulous New York is; you're never leaving Beacon Hills again. Not without me, anyway. I'll admit, I won't pass up the opportunity to stay in a penthouse in the Big Apple if we get the chance, but you're never leaving my side. Got it?"

I gave an embarrassingly watery chuckle as I replied, "Got it, Dee."

"Okay, my turn. I've missed her too." I moved some of Lydia's hair from my eyes to see Scott smiling behind Lydia, rocking back and forth a little.

"No!" Lydia just held tighter. "She's mine."

"Oh, c'mon, I wanna hug." Lydia still didn't let go. "Lydia!"

"Uh, fine. If you want her so bad, you can have her. Just don't even think about making any plans before I do. I call dibs on my Bee."

"Deal." Lydia moved away, and I got a few seconds of fresh air before I was smothered again, this time by Scott. I'm pretty sure my feet came off the ground a little.

"Jeez, McCall, you got tall." The top of my head barely grazed his chin, so I just rested my head on his chest, soaking in the Scotty I'd missed so badly.

"And you stayed exactly the same height." I moved my one of my hands from his waist to hit him softly in the back.

"I'll have you know I've grown a full foot, four inches since third grade, thank you very much." I heard (and felt) him chuckle at that, and couldn't help it as my smile grew wider. "I've missed that laugh, McCall."

"And I've missed your ability to help me not look like an idiot in class, Meyers." I giggled a little at that, and pulled back slightly to look up at him.

"I have a feeling I'm gonna get a lot of neck strain this year." He laughed and let go of me long enough to throw one arm over my shoulder, leading over to where Lydia and the brunette were standing, still beside the lockers.

"You must be Annabelle." She smiled shyly at me holding out her hand.

"And you must be Allison," She nodded as I smiled and reached out to shake her hand. "It's nice to finally meet you. Lydia has been going on and on about you being the first suitable replacement for me since I left when we were eight." Allison smiled and looked over at Lydia, who nodded seriously. "No, seriously. I'm not even kidding. Since the first day of sophomore year. All. The. Time."

Lydia nodded again. "It's true. I hadn't had a girly heart-to-heart that wasn't over the phone in about a year before you moved here. It was hard work." Allison giggled again (I'm going to assume she's the type to giggle a lot), and as I started laughing with her, I was rammed into something solid from behind, lifted off my feet, and swung around.

"Oh, my god, I missed you sooooooo much." I recognised Stiles' voice immediately, though it was deeper now than when we were kids. Obviously. That tends to happen when people grow up. "Seriously, Scott sucks at video games and doesn't appreciate my Star Wars references like you do. Why did you have to leave me with him?"

"Hey!" Scott's slightly offended voice came from somewhere in the near vicinity, but we were still spinning around, slower now, so I couldn't tell where he was.

"STILINSKI." This voice I didn't recognise. "Put that poor girl down before you get another restraining order." Stiles put me down with a quiet "Sorry, Coach", only for me to turn around and throw my arms around him anyway.

"I missed you too, Stiles. Wait," I pulled back, taken slightly aback by how well puberty had hit him. "_Another_ restraining order?"

He looked a little sheepish as he struggled to answer me, before settling with, "Scott got one too."

"Dude! Why you gotta rat me out like that?"

Yeah, turns out they hadn't grown up as much as I thought they had.

The warning bell rang, and I was about to look down at my timetable when Stiles snatched it out of my hands.

"Ah, I see you're joining us for chemistry first period. Oh, wait. Who's gonna be teaching us this semester? I mean, they've got two teaching positions that need filling."

I felt there was a "that's what she said joke" in there somewhere, but my curiosity got hold of my brain before my humour could. "What, did all the teachers just start bailing or something? Did they find out I was coming back to Beacon and leg it?"

"Our chemistry and English teachers from last semester both went missing." I didn't miss the look Lydia gave the rest of the group as she said that, but before I could ask about it, Stiles was pushing me towards what I could only hope was the correct classroom.

"Guess we'll find out what poor sucker has us this year soon enough."

The 'poor sucker' happened to be some old guy who looked like he would either trip over his enormous beard or keel over dead at any second. Mr Jenson droned on about something chemistry-like while all of no one paid attention. He didn't even notice when Stiles and Scott turned in their seats to talk to Lydia and I, where we were sat on the workbench behind them. Allison was sat at the desk behind us with this Isaac guy, who seemed nice enough, though Scott's face told me something was going on there. I decided to wait until we weren't in a classroom full of nosy students before questioning him about the sad puppy dog look on his face. When I sent a quizzical look in Stiles' direction, and nodded my head towards Scott, Stiles simply smacked Scott across the arm and told him to "snap out of it". Once Mr Jenson told us to split into pairs to begin the task sheet he was handing out, Lydia spun in her seat to face me dead on, a determined look on her face.

"Okay, since I get you first-"

"Wait, who says you get her first?" Stiles shot around, his eyebrows lowered into a frown. Scott turned around too.

"Sorry Stiles. Lydia called dips."

"Why do I feel like a stuffed doll right now?" I hate it when people talk about me as if I'm not there.

"Lydia, you cannot get everything you want, when you want it."

"Uh, actually, yes, I can."

"Uh, actually, no, you can't."

"Mature, Stiles. Real mature."

"I'm just saying-"

"Okayyy. Enough with the bickering, you two. I'm just gonna jump in with a suggestion here. Why don't we all do something together, huh? That sound good? Okay. Any ideas on what you guys want to do? Allison, Isaac, you guys in?" Isaac looked a little surprised that he was asked, as did Scott, but nodded along with Allison anyway. "Okay, good."

"Well, that diner that you used to love is still open. You know, the one with the arcade?" I nodded at Stiles' suggestion. "We could grab something to eat there, and then go catch a movie or something."

"Oh, there's this new Ryan Gosling fi-" I cut Lydia off before she could continue.

"No. Just... No." She pouted, and then sighed.

"Fine. How about that new superhero film? Everyone looked surprised at her suggestion. "What? Cute guys in tight clothes? I'm in."

"Oh, please. The last time you came to New York, you insisted that we watch Spiderman, because Jackson had been going on about it and never invited you to watch it with him." Lydia cleared her throat and threw her hair over her shoulder.

"I did no such thing."

"It's okay to be a bit of a nerd sometimes, Dee. We're all guilty of it."

Lydia scoffed "A bit of a nerd? Half the time I actually managed to tear you away from these two dorks to come play dolls at my house, you came over wearing capes and helmets. One time, you and Stiles came to a birthday party dressed up as vampires. It wasn't even a fancy dress party. You scared half of the kids so much they peed themselves and had to go home two hours early." The three of us laughed at the fond memory.

"I remember that." Scott said wistfully, staring off into the distance. "You guys made me watch some Dracula movie, and I got really scared, and you thought that dressing up like him would help me be less scared."

"Why..." Isaac leaned forward in his seat, trying to talk a little quieter than the rest of us, since we were supposed to be working. "Why did you think that would help?"

"We didn't." I said. Stiles shook his head, agreeing with my statement, looking back to Scott as he slapped his hand on Scott's shoulder.

"Nah, man. We were totally screwing with you."

"Not cool, guys." Scott shook his head at us. "You know, even now, every time I hear a Transylvanian accent I flinch." We all burst out laughing at that, before getting shushed by Mr Jenson, and trying to carry on with our work without too many vampire jokes.

The next few periods went much in the same way, with the four of us reminiscing in ay classes we had together. It was just like old times, only it all felt a little more grown up now. Since we were a little more grown up, and all. Lydia made me promise to go to her party that weekend, Scott tried to throw a half-dissected frog at me during Biology, and Stiles only just beat me in a game of 'How Many Innuendos Can You Spot in the Spanish Textbook' by three points.

Lunch, however, came as a bit of a surprise for me. While it was nice to see the three best friends I'd ever had hanging out and getting along, I thought they were just doing it for my benefit. When I left, Lydia was making herself known as the Queen Bee (or should that be Queen Dee?) of our year. And Scott and Stiles... Well, they weren't exactly forerunners in the popularity contest, if I'm going to put it bluntly. But when I walked into the cafeteria with Stiles after Spanish, he didn't even hesitate as he walked over to the table Lydia, Allison and a few other guys were sat at, and threw his bag in the seat opposite Allison. Scott wasn't even there yet, so I was completely surprised when the other guys sat at the table, two very identical twins, said something to Stiles that made him glare slightly and say something back, to which they all laughed. I wandered over to them slowly, a little wary.

"Okay, since when did you guys sit at the cool table?"

"Pretty much since you left, actually." Stiles turned around, crossing his arms and leaning against the table." "Yeah, minutes after we dropped your dead weight ass, our social status rose considerably." I pulled a face as I hit him in the shoulder. "Uh, ow!"

"You're hilarious, Stilinski. Really. You should try stand-up. Maybe you'll find your true calling."

"Do you know what, Belle?" Stiles wrapped an arm around my shoulders as he spoke. "You're the only person around here who appreciates my humour."

"Hey, I think I do a pretty good job of that." Scott slid into the seat next to Isaac, who had taken the seat to the right of Allison.

"Dude. You don't get any of my jokes. Like, ever. Not even my Batman ones."

"It's not that I don't get them," Scott muttered as he speared a couple of fries. "It's that they're not funny."

Both Stiles and I flinched back in mock horror, and I put a hand to my chest. "Ouch, Scotty. That is not cool."

"C'mon, Belle. We don't need him." Stiles led me away from the chatting table, towards the lunch line. "I do, however, need curly fries if I'm to make it through Economics with coach last period."

Turns out, last period Economics was just as horrendous and Scott and Stiles had expressed. The coach was loud, obnoxious and seemed to really enjoy bullying just about anyone who spoke up in class, especially some kid named Greenburg. To lighten my day, however, I got a text from Lydia. She had mentioned before I got here that she wanted to throw a party to celebrate me coming home, with just our closest friends. However, when I got my official text invite from her, so did half of the Economics class. Including Greenburg. I was (pleasantly) surprised when the coach's phone didn't go off, though he didn't look as pleasant, what with everyone ignoring him to check their messages mid-rant.

Why the party was on a Wednesday night, I don't know, but that didn't leave much time for outfit shopping, and, according to Lydia, being the guest of honour meant I had to look… well, like Lydia, I guess. From the pictures of outfits she kept sending me, I could've sworn at least half of them were from her own closet, rather than the high-end clothing website she insisted she found them on. So we decided we would go shopping the next night, the night before the party, since I had to work at Mom's shop that night, and find some cute outfits to make me look decent enough to be in Lydia's company. Although, that involved telling Mom why I couldn't work Wednesday night, and that conversation was pretty much doomed from the get-go.

"A party? On a school night?" Mom's hesitant face wasn't one I had encountered often. I was a good girl, getting good grades, hanging out with the 'right crowds', never getting in trouble. Which meant being able to pretty much do what I wanted, within reason. In the Meyers household, good behaviour was rewarded with respect and trust. So when I got given the 'that's so not going to happen' face that Mom had given my brother oh-so many times, I wasn't sure how to handle it.

"At Lydia's house, Mom. You love Lydia. You trust Lydia."

"Yeah, I love and trust Lydia. I don't, however, love and trust the drunk, horny high school boys-"

"Ew, Mom."

"- that'll be there trying to get in your pants-"

"Oh my God, Mom, please stop."

"-and all the kids, underage kids, I might add, that'll more than likely be drinking some spiked punch-"

"Mom, that is so cliché."

"- or something, and ending up with a serious hangover on a school day. I don't like that idea."

"Mom, you trust me, right?" I pouted a little, something that usually only worked with Dad, but eh. I figured it was worth a try.

"Oh, don't use the 'trust' card. You know I trust you."

"Then you know I won't be there getting absolutely wasted and falling asleep in school on Thursday, right?" Mom folded her arms over her chest, and nodded slightly, a frown still on her face. "And Scott and Stiles will be there. If a couple of drunk, horny high school boys somehow manage to get passed Lydia in their sad attempts at trying to, ew, get in my pants or anything, they're so not gonna get passed the boys."

"Yeah, I guess not." Mom sighed. "Okay. Conditions. You can go to this party at Lydia's if you, a) stay at Lydia's until you are coming home, b) don't drink so much that you can no longer tell the difference between quiet flirting and outright groping, and c) call me, your father, or Jacob to pick you up at the end of the night."

"Okay, deal." I grinned widely, hugging Mom as the bell over the shop door rang, signalling a customer. "But Stiles already offered me a lift." At Mom's face, I cut her off. "He won't be drinking, not when he's driving, I swear."

"Mmm." She looked me over, as though looking for telltale signs that I was lying or something.

"Come on now, Grace." Dad walked in from the back of the shop, where he'd been drinking coffee and reading one of his books. "Belle knows better than to get in a car with a drunken boy. Plus, Stiles' father is the sheriff. If there's one family we can trust with our baby girl, it's the Stilinskis."

"I know, alright. But if he does decide to drink, even one, you call us. Got that."

"Yes, ma'am." I went to give a mock salute, and then thought better of it when I saw Mom raise one of her eyebrows. Instead, I gave her two thumbs up and a smile, before Dad waved me off to go see to the waiting customer.

* * *

That night, when I was in my room trying desperately to finish unpacking (though that _so _wasn't going to happen for the next year or so), I heard a noise at my window. It was a tapping sort of noise, light and quick. I thought it was a bird that had landed by the window, or a rodent or something, and there was no chance I was gonna go and check that out, so I ignored it. It wasn't until I moved to sit at my desk that I saw something out of the window. Something that was moving in the light breeze. I walked over to it, kneeling on the pillows of the bay window as I pushed the window open. I grabbed the white paper that had been stuck between two slates on the roof below my window, and quickly pulled the window shut before unfolding the paper. There were seven words typed onto the paper. Seven words that were completely innocent. Nothing but an observation, really. Yet, whether from the words or the fact that someone had specifically typed out the message for me, climbed onto the roof of my house and planted the note under my window, they managed to strike a small knot of fear into the pit of my stomach. The house felt quiet and empty. I'd always liked the quiet, the solitude of an empty house. I decided the best option would be to switch on all the lights in the house, put on some music, and completely forget about the note until Jacob got home with our food. I had been in Beacon Hills all of two days and I was already freaked out enough to bolt, all because of a little note from a stranger. Strange stuff always happened in Beacon Hills. It's as if the place was a magnet for the creepy. It was probably just a joke anyway, and if I wanted to stay and graduate with the friends I had missed so badly, I would just have to suck it up and not let those little words get to me. I looked down at the note again, the loud music slowing dimming to faint background noise as all of my attention focused on the bizarre, yet unsettling, note.

_Careful, Annabelle. The Full Moon is Coming._

It was probably just a joke.

Right?


End file.
